Parliament finalizes standing committees

Parliament has today finalized the 12 standing committees in parliament, with Public Accounts Committee and 241 Committee holding 13 and 14 members respectively.

Members passed the Report of the Ad-hoc Committee - comprised to assign allotments for the 12 Standing Committees and 241 Committee of the Parliament - with 49 votes in favor, 3 votes against and 7 abstention votes.

Holding 6 seats in 4 committees and 5 seats in 8 committees, the ruling coalition - comprising of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) - have majority in all 12 standing committees in parliament.

The newly composed 13-member Public Accounts Committee, often considered the most influential committee in parliament, will have 5 members from PPM, 4 members from the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), 2 members from Jumhoory Party (JP) and 1 member from MDA.

Opposition MDP will have 3 members in 11 committees and 4 members in 1 committee. Jumhoory Party - who was recently removed from the ruling coalition after party leader MP Gasim Ibrahim stood for parliament speakership - will have 2 members in 8 committees and 1 member in 4 committees. The religiously conservative Adhaalath Party, who has a single member in parliament, will sit in two committees and the single independent member in parliament will also sit in a single committee.

Ruling majority party PPM currently has a strength of 41 MPs and PPM's coalition partner MDA has an additional 5 MPs in parliament. Minority party MDP currently has 24 MPs in the 18th parliament, composed of 85 MPs in total.